As expected of the Gran Tesoro, the world's greatest entertainment city.
The show lived up to its reputation, exactly the kind of spectacle Tesoro himself would approve of.
I enjoyed it thoroughly, and so did Hancock and the others, who arrived halfway through.
"Still as flamboyant as ever, isn't it? Golden fireworks, golden fountains… Even with that man's powers to conjure them endlessly, this stage is literally blinding."
"In more ways than one. I wonder how much this stage alone cost to build? Easily tens of billions of Berries, I bet."
The gold itself was probably Tesoro's own creation, so the raw materials were essentially free. And since he could shape it directly with the powers of the Gold-Gold Fruit, the construction costs might not have been that high. But if someone tried to buy the whole thing outright… how many trillions of Berries would that take? No, even more than that.
Hancock and the Kuja, whether on their island or within their territory, would never have seen anything like this. They sat there utterly stunned by the lavish spectacle unfolding before them.
I doubt they're particularly fond of this kind of extravagance, but Tesoro's shows are so meticulously crafted that they're genuinely entertaining, even if you only take them at face value.
A stage made entirely of gold should have come off as gaudy or vulgar, the worst sort of nouveau riche display. Yet in Tesoro's hands, it became pure showmanship, stripped of those negative connotations.
His innate sense for staging and performance must be one reason he rules the Gran Tesoro as its undisputed king.
And putting all that aside—he really is talented.
Tesoro, Stella… and all the other singers and performers as well.
Even Uta, making her debut tonight, showed remarkable promise. If she kept honing her skills, she had the potential to become an extraordinary singer. That much, at least, I was sure of.
By the way, something had been bothering me…
"Hey, did you enjoy the show?"
"Sorry to keep you waiting, Sue. I'm glad Hancock and the others made it in time as well."
Tesoro and Stella, fresh off their performance, arrived and took their seats.
Seizing the moment, I leaned in. "Hey, Tesoro, about one of the singers… the one with the lavender hair—Carina, right?"
"Hm? You mean Uta?"
"No, not Uta. Uta was great too, but I mean the other one, the girl with the pale purple hair… Carina?"
She'd been the singer who performed a few acts after Uta, wearing a sexy deep V-neck dress as she danced and sang.
Her voice had been excellent, and the song itself was great, but…
"Ah, I know exactly what you're getting at. The rumors about her being a thief, right?"
"Oh, so you hired her knowing that?"
I know that girl.
In fact, I've been one of her targets before.
Back when I was in the East Blue, she was running the same kind of pirate-targeting scams Nami did in the original story. I don't know if she specialized in pirates or not, but…
Since I'm a pirate myself, she probably assumed I had money and picked me as a mark.
She was good at blending into the night and concealing her presence, but she couldn't slip past my Observation Haki, so I noticed her right away.
When I caught her, I was shocked to find she was just a kid, barely in her teens.
I'd shut down her plan before she could actually do anything, so there was no real harm done. I didn't have the heart to punish her, so I let her go. I never imagined she'd make it all the way to the Grand Line.
And not just to the Grand Line—she'd somehow ended up here in the New World.
How did she even get here? Did she stow away on some big merchant ship or passenger liner?
Seriously, though. You're keeping around a girl who's clearly after your money? You've got peculiar tastes… Well, her singing is pretty damn good, I'll give her that.
"She's the star of the stage here, and as staff she's an excellent communicator, listener, and crowd-pleaser. Her voice is one of the best on the Gran Tesoro. We have customers who visit just to hear her sing, and she's become a goal for the apprentices working to improve."
"So you decided she was worth the risk, huh? Well, if you're fine with it, I won't interfere… Just make sure she doesn't stab you in the back while you sleep."
"I know, I know. If she shows her true colors as the 'Vixen,' it'll be unfortunate, but I'll deal with it properly. Still… I think she's likely to stay. I'm paying her a fair wage—if anything, more than fair."
"So you're saying it's more profitable to work honestly than to risk being a thief? Some people feel that way, I guess… but what about Carina herself?"
She'd seemed to genuinely enjoy stealing, almost like she had her own personal code.
"Besides, I don't think we need to worry for now. She's grown attached to Stella, and she seems to feel indebted to her."
"Indebted? To Stella?"
What's that supposed to mean?
When I pressed for details, it turned out Carina hadn't infiltrated the Gran Tesoro to steal anything. Tesoro—or rather, Stella—had recruited her.
It was a fairly recent story. Tesoro had been invited to an underground casino by some business partners for a deal in the shadows.
Compared to the Gran Tesoro, that casino couldn't compete in sheer size, but it was surprisingly popular, even infamous, in the underworld thanks to its "extreme" events. I wouldn't know from firsthand experience, though.
To put it bluntly, it staged the kind of life-or-death gambling and spectacles you'd see in a show like "Kaiji," where people literally bet their lives for entertainment.
In that casino, countless slaves were chained up and forced to wear explosive collars. Some were contestants, made to gamble for their lives on stage. Others were kept as prizes for the winners.
Apparently, Carina had somehow ended up there. Who knows what mistake had landed her in that hell?
Maybe she'd botched a robbery and been sold off, just like I once was.
It's rare to find someone kind enough to let a thief walk free. Not that I have any room to talk.
At best, she'd be reported and thrown into custody. At worst, she'd face a fate even crueler than a legal sentence. For a girl as cute as Carina, the latter seemed far more likely.
Stella had felt sorry for her, of course—but in the underworld, scenes like that are everywhere. She couldn't allow her compassion to interfere with Tesoro's deal.
She admitted that at first, she'd been ready to turn a blind eye, even as her heart ached.
But then she saw what Carina was doing there, and that resolve crumbled.
Even while wearing a collar herself, Carina had been shielding younger children—likely kidnapped or sold into that place—taking their place in the most dangerous games.
Injured and pushed to her limits, she still clung to survival. Yet to keep the children from worrying, to hide their fear, she forced a crooked grin and laughed, "Ushishishishi," trying desperately to reassure them.
When Stella saw that, she quietly excused herself from Tesoro and challenged Carina to a "gambling match," playing along as a paying customer.
She acted as though she were genuinely thrilled by the event, took part in the games… and won, again and again. One by one, she claimed the children Carina had been protecting as her prizes.
The surrounding spectators had loved every second of it.
It was obvious to everyone that Carina was risking her life to shield those children.
Yet, one after another, the very kids she was trying to protect were taken as prizes, torn from her side, and handed off to others.
The children, terrified, cried and struggled to no avail as they were dragged away.
Carina could only watch, helpless, clenching her teeth and glaring at Stella.
To the onlookers, Stella's near-monopoly on victories might have seemed a bit much. Even so, they clearly found the whole spectacle entertaining.
In the end, Stella claimed every last "prize."
Carina collapsed, tears streaming down her face in sheer despair.
Even she ended up as the prize for Stella's final game. Having won every match and collected all the prizes, Stella was showered with thunderous applause, praised for her incredible luck.
But when the truth came out, there was no brutal slave treatment waiting for them at all.
Instead, their collars were removed, and they were freed—leaving Carina and the others utterly stunned.
They were grateful, of course, but gratitude didn't change the fact that they had been kidnapped or sold into that underground casino. They had nowhere to go. They couldn't simply return home on their own, and no one could reasonably be expected to take responsibility for them forever.
Some of the children were entrusted to the Marines and managed to reunite with their families. But for others, that wasn't possible.
Some had lost their parents—to pirates, to war, to countless other tragedies.
Others had been sold by their own parents. Sending them back would only mean being sold again.
And there were those abducted from countries not affiliated with the World Government. Citizens of unaffiliated nations have no "human rights" in the eyes of that system; the Marines would never get involved.
Stella placed those children either in orphanages she personally funded or, if they wished, hired them as workers aboard the Gran Tesoro.
Once she'd stepped in, Stella resolved to take responsibility to the end, doing everything she reasonably could.
As for Carina… she joined the Gran Tesoro to repay Stella's kindness.
Even now, she still occasionally meets with and encourages some of the children—those who chose to work on the ship.
I see… In that case, she does seem trustworthy.
If she's the kind of girl who risks her life to protect unknown children and cries over their future, then I'd like to believe she wouldn't repay kindness with betrayal.
Besides, Tesoro and Stella have a good eye for people, all things considered. I'll just trust that they've judged her correctly.
"Well, if anything starts bothering you, let me know. I can 'read' her again for you."
"Yeah, I'll take you up on that. Sue's… ability… is a huge help. No need for interrogation, whether it's a spy or a thief."
"She can be a bit intimidating at first glance, though."
---
After that, we decided to make the most of our time. We hit the casino, checked out shows other than the main stage, and made sure to catch another performance by the songstress. Whenever we got thirsty, we grabbed drinks from the bartenders at the counters. We fully indulged in a night on the Gran Tesoro.
Marie and Sonia were gambling within their limits. Sonia seemed to be on an impressive lucky streak, while Marie looked a little disappointed after losing.
Even so, it was admirable how they could accept their losses and know when to call it a night. "Okay, that's enough for today." If you can't do that, you'll just get swallowed up by gambling.
Hancock, on the other hand, was winning big.
Luck was part of it, but I'm pretty sure another factor was that the dealers kept getting distracted by her beauty and making mistakes. Charm is a terrifying weapon for any woman—especially for someone like her.
As for me, I'm not particularly interested in casinos or gambling, so I was content just watching everyone else.
Seeing the full range of emotions people experience while gambling—their highs and lows—is entertainment enough for me.
It's fun to watch someone win a small bet and jump up and down in delight, or someone lose everything on a huge gamble and collapse like a puppet with its strings cut… as long as I'm not the one on the line.
The thrill of feeling safe… No, maybe that's not quite the right way to put it.
Anyway, it's the same here as everywhere else. Casinos and gambling halls are always advertised as places where you can strike it rich overnight, drawing crowds of hopefuls. But in reality, the house is set up to win. They adjust the odds and use all kinds of tricks that don't technically count as cheating, all to ensure their profits.
I once heard that Japanese pachinko parlors are set so that only about one in twenty players comes out ahead.
And sometimes, when a ridiculously lucky customer starts racking up wins… that's when the casino sends in one of their top-tier dealers to reclaim the money.
On the Gran Tesoro, Baccarat is one of the dealers who plays that role.
She's an Ability User who ate the Luck-Luck Fruit, which allows her to manipulate luck. By touching someone, she can steal their luck and become incredibly fortunate herself, while the person she touched becomes unlucky. It's a truly terrifying power.
She uses that ability to gradually siphon luck from her subordinates, putting herself into an absurdly lucky state. Then she crushes her opponents at baccarat, winning big without ever stooping to outright cheating.
The subordinates who cooperate in this "luck donation"—a bit like donating blood, but for fortune—get bonuses later.
The amount of luck she takes from each person is carefully kept low enough not to disrupt their daily lives, so it's not a serious problem. In fact, many of them eagerly volunteer to be drained, hoping to earn those bonuses.
And on the rare occasions when even Baccarat can't turn the tide, Stella steps in.
When it comes to gambling, she's even more overwhelming than Baccarat is.
You could practically call her undefeated, her luck in such things off the charts. Even when the opponent cheats, she simply draws an even better hand and snatches victory away.
People even say that once she sits down at a table, it stops being a fair contest.
Remember Carina's story? How Stella won every match and rescued Carina and all the children? That was because everyone knew that once she joined, her victory was a foregone conclusion.
Like Baccarat's Luck-Luck Fruit, this too is the power of a Devil Fruit.
The one I mentioned earlier—the fruit she ate without anyone noticing, and the shock when she finally told us about it.
The Zoan-type Mythical Beast Fruit: Human-Human Fruit, Model: Benzaiten.
That's the name of the Devil Fruit Stella ate.
A god, no less. Just like Fleet Admiral Sengoku's Model: Great Buddha, it's a divine-type power.
True to its name, it grants her absurd, almost unfair abilities.
As a Zoan-type user, eating it enhanced her basic physical strength and boosted her self-defense capabilities, but… the true core of her power lies in how it vastly amplifies her luck in every matter related to money.
Her luck in business, in gambling, in anything connected to drawing in wealth is said to be downright cheat-level.
It's so overpowered that even Baccarat's Luck-Luck Fruit, which can all but guarantee jackpots at slot machines, can't beat it.
I once watched the two of them face off. Baccarat, who had been on a hot streak, suddenly racked up ten straight losses the moment Stella became her opponent, and ended up slumped over in despair.
Stella's dominance was so overwhelming it sent a chill through me.
Her awkward little smile, as she murmured, "Um… sorry about that," somehow made it even more unsettling.
However, this power isn't active all the time. Like I said, it only works when money is involved. In that sense, unlike Baccarat—whose luck manipulation also comes in handy in combat and other situations—Stella's ability is less versatile.
There's another limitation too: her power doesn't seem to activate when you're trying to make money through malicious means.
It's cheat-level when used to bring happiness to others, but powerless when used to cause suffering. Maybe that's because it's a god's power—does the user's virtue or moral orientation play a role?
If you're trying to twist luck to hurt people, it might simply refuse to function.
Stella's pure wish to live happily with Tesoro and to bring happiness to those close to her—perhaps that's what allows her to fully wield the power of Benzaiten.
But… why does that power work so perfectly in gambling? She's essentially stripping away her opponents' money.
Maybe because gambling is, by nature, a mutual agreement—a money game entered into at one's own risk. So any losses are considered "self-responsibility"?
…Devil Fruit powers are still so vague and confusing.
Well, Stella seems happy enough, so I guess it's fine.
By the way, from what I saw today, it didn't look like either Stella or Baccarat even had a chance to step in.
Amidst the roars of victory, the wails of defeat, and the cheers and laughter of the crowd, the casino night deepened.
To be continued...